 Fish, mollusks, crustaceans and aquatic plants are fundamental, essential and indispensable foods consumed by people around the world as part of healthy diets, cultural heritage. As food heroes, small-scale fishes, including fisherwomen and fishermen, produce large portion of this food and play an important role in positioning small-scale fisheries Both inland and coastal is one of the key contributors to our food system's livelihoods, culture and the environment. Without our small-scale fishes and fish workers, both food security and nutrition, poverty eradication and the sustainable use of natural resources would be far distant hopes for most of the world's population. In Namibia, despite the immense role that the small-scale fisheries sector plays in food and nutrition security of communities and providing a source of income, the sector has historically been underestimated and neglected from a socio-economic perspective, leaving especially vulnerable and marginalized small-scale fishes without the recognition and support to allow the small-scale fisheries sector to flourish. Fishing communities both inland and coastal are therefore faced with numerous challenges, ranging from access restrictions, resource depletion, habitat degradation, inequitable resource allocation and climate change. The National Plan of Action for Small-Scale Fisheries, the NPOA-SSF, will help pave the way forward to strengthening inclusive governance and sustainable resource management of small-scale fisheries in Namibia towards the socio-economic development and resilience of vulnerable small-scale fishermen and women. Namibia launched its NPOA-SSF in mid-2022 in a bid to uplift the small-scale fisheries sub-sector and address the numerous challenges that it faces. The NPOA-SSF, which is developed in alignment with the principles of the voluntary guidelines for securing sustainable small-scale fisheries in the context of food security and poverty eradication, provides the first attempt to formally recognize small-scale fisheries actors by defining, profiling and characterizing the sub-sector. During the validation process of the National Plan of Action for Small-Scale Fisheries, various stakeholders including government and civil society organization officials, community leaders, fishermen and fisherwomen from within Namibia and her neighboring countries such as Angola and South Africa took to the podium to share the experiences, highlight challenges, solutions and best practices for the small-scale fisheries sector. In the coastal towns of Walvis Bay, Swakob Mound and Henties Bay, small-scale fishers from various neighborhood locations, including the townships such as Mondesa and Kusub Mound, hop into their vehicles, onto bicycles or walk long distances to see if they can hook a lucrative catch to sell or consume. It's just like the government, it's better to help us, just to give us a freedom of fishing and the cost, because we cannot fish all along the coast from fishery to the mall that place is prohibited. So we have to come via footy or aida above May 4. That's not as effective as the ones in the Henties Bay. Well, it's a transport. I've got to do the top of the Henties Bay, you know. You know, I don't think it's possible. So what do you think I'm going to do? I'm going to do the top of the Henties Bay, you know. I'm going to do the top of the Henties Bay, you know. I'm going to do the top of the Henties Bay, you know. I'm going to do the top of the Henties Bay, you know. The role played by women in small-scale fisheries has enormous potential to significantly contribute towards sustainable food systems. Their predominance in the post harvest section of the small-scale fisheries value chain is central in ensuring that their families and consumers have access to food. Yet they face a myriad of challenges such as unequal access to usable assets, technology and financing as well as unfair conditions and practices with regard to fish sales and markets compared to their male counterparts. The big challenge that they are having is attacks from crocodiles because most of the people that fish that side, they fish from the banks of the river and there's no boundary, there's no protection. So it's very easy for the crocodile to just attack the people and they have been attacks that are there. So that's what she's saying that the government should step in and assist them in this regard because it's very risky for the people to fish there. There are quite a few challenges. Like most of the time the first thing that is troublesome or worrisome for us is that the weather. Most of the time it's not very clear by the shoreline and then you are in a way, sometimes you are alone or maybe you're with your family and then you find there's a lot of men. So you are in this frightened situation all the time. But sometimes it's very nice, there are guys out there that love to help. So it's not, but you should be careful. Civil society organizations play an important role in providing effective solutions for the small-scale fishery sector. As small-scale fishers continue to face many challenges to secure livelihoods while simultaneously ensuring sustainability and adapting to changing environmental conditions, civil society's role is indispensable. New government was always overwhelmed with this issue of arresting people, finding but eventually they decided to facilitate a process where they can organize these small-scale fishers to create an enabling environment for them to take in legal fishing and trading. I think in Africa we are the only government that has succeeded in community management of fisheries because we already established and legally established 20 fisheries reserves with more than 2500 hectares under protection where people manage their own resource, nobody can come from outside and commercialize and steal their fish. The NPOA SSF recognizes the important role that the private sector plays in empowering and supporting small-scale fishing communities by providing infrastructure, market access and ensuring that good quality fish products reach consumers. Small-scale fishers and the small-scale fishery sector at large require continued support and development in order to achieve socioeconomic benefits for fishing communities. The development of policy frameworks such as the NPOA SSF is a step in the right direction to ensure that their contribution to global food systems is acknowledged and remains central to ending hunger, malnutrition and poverty not just in Namibia but also in all parts of the world.